Re:MODERATORS: This is a valid question
on
Ask Larry Niven
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Actually, I refer you to this webpage:
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/halo_culture.ht ml
" Jones explains. "In Niven's books, the Ringworld completely encircles a star, and is thus hundreds of millions of miles in diameter, whereas Halo is just a satellite orbiting a gas giant and is considerably smaller. In fact, structurally it's more similar to the "orbitals" in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels."
There are a LOT more similarities between the culture Orbitals and Halo than between Halo and Ringworld.
As far as I'm concerned, the current IP and surrounding laws fall just short of being downright evil.
Yes, their is certainly a need for IP and copyright.
BUT
There needs to be a LOT of mechanisms in place which amount to totally re-writing the laws...
*Practical demonstration
You shouldn't be able to copyright something unless you have at least a working model. Equally, companies which exist soley to whack other companies over IP should be illegal
*Use it or lose it
If it's sitting arround for years, it ammounts to stiffling competition. If you don't USE it for over a year, it should pass into the public domain
*An easy way of allowing non-commercial use
Currently things such as mods for games and fanfiction for authors is an UTTER legal minefield. Even "authorised" ones can make you lose rights, which means many companies clamp down. There should be an easy way to declare non-commercial use of the IP for specified uses legal.
I could go on and on, they're just the three top points which come to mind.
We made a high-speed CD thrower when we were in school for one project. It was pretty dangerous to anything in it's way, not surpisingly.
But hey, we got to fire AOL CD's at blocks of wood! Finally, a truly productive use for junk CD's!
Anyone have good links? Because I'd be VERY interested to see what happens.
While I understand that books are not the same, the whole think smacks of Harlan Ellison and Baen Books.
Harlan Ellison is totally against people sharing ebooks. He started "KICK", which has basically zero support.
Baen Books have embraced the internet. Snippets, the bar (forums/newsgroups), websubscriptions, the free library and indeed D20 RPG's in several authors worlds which will be released with the next books in the series, on CD.
It is interesting to read the comments - Prime Palaver - in the Baen free library, by Eric Flint.
It's here - http://www.baen.com/library/
I know it's been/.'d before, but it's worth a mention again.
Certainly it helps the smaller artists more than the larger ones, but the RIAA REALLY needs to take a close look at what it is. If it's truly there to support it's artists, it needs to stop chasing after things for which there is NO real evidence that the industry is coming to harm, and start doing REAL work.
But that, of course, would maybe cost the top artists some small percentage of their income. And we couldn't have that, COULD WE. I'm pleased I don't live in America.
For reference, I don't download music I don't own. I do have some ebooks I don't otherwise own. Books I have tried, unsuccessfully, to BUY for in many cases YEARS. I have a good business (with others) buying and selling scifi books on ebay, but some books you plain can't get. I'm willing to commit a crime - until I *do* manage to get them. (These are books from the 60's and 70's)
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I refer you to this webpage:
t ml
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/halo_culture.h
" Jones explains. "In Niven's books, the Ringworld completely encircles a star, and is thus hundreds of millions of miles in diameter, whereas Halo is just a satellite orbiting a gas giant and is considerably smaller. In fact, structurally it's more similar to the "orbitals" in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels."
There are a LOT more similarities between the culture Orbitals and Halo than between Halo and Ringworld.
As far as I'm concerned, the current IP and surrounding laws fall just short of being downright evil.
Yes, their is certainly a need for IP and copyright.
BUT
There needs to be a LOT of mechanisms in place which amount to totally re-writing the laws...
*Practical demonstration
You shouldn't be able to copyright something unless you have at least a working model. Equally, companies which exist soley to whack other companies over IP should be illegal
*Use it or lose it
If it's sitting arround for years, it ammounts to stiffling competition. If you don't USE it for over a year, it should pass into the public domain
*An easy way of allowing non-commercial use
Currently things such as mods for games and fanfiction for authors is an UTTER legal minefield. Even "authorised" ones can make you lose rights, which means many companies clamp down. There should be an easy way to declare non-commercial use of the IP for specified uses legal.
I could go on and on, they're just the three top points which come to mind.
"Ironically, our sys admin tried to update the WebSense stuff one time and the filter blocked WebSense's own web site. :) How useful that was..."
I think that comment says a LOT about the usefulness of censorware.
We made a high-speed CD thrower when we were in school for one project. It was pretty dangerous to anything in it's way, not surpisingly. But hey, we got to fire AOL CD's at blocks of wood! Finally, a truly productive use for junk CD's!
Anyone have good links? Because I'd be VERY interested to see what happens.
/.'d before, but it's worth a mention again.
While I understand that books are not the same, the whole think smacks of Harlan Ellison and Baen Books.
Harlan Ellison is totally against people sharing ebooks. He started "KICK", which has basically zero support.
Baen Books have embraced the internet. Snippets, the bar (forums/newsgroups), websubscriptions, the free library and indeed D20 RPG's in several authors worlds which will be released with the next books in the series, on CD.
It is interesting to read the comments - Prime Palaver - in the Baen free library, by Eric Flint.
It's here - http://www.baen.com/library/
I know it's been
Certainly it helps the smaller artists more than the larger ones, but the RIAA REALLY needs to take a close look at what it is. If it's truly there to support it's artists, it needs to stop chasing after things for which there is NO real evidence that the industry is coming to harm, and start doing REAL work.
But that, of course, would maybe cost the top artists some small percentage of their income. And we couldn't have that, COULD WE. I'm pleased I don't live in America.
For reference, I don't download music I don't own. I do have some ebooks I don't otherwise own. Books I have tried, unsuccessfully, to BUY for in many cases YEARS. I have a good business (with others) buying and selling scifi books on ebay, but some books you plain can't get. I'm willing to commit a crime - until I *do* manage to get them. (These are books from the 60's and 70's)